This research considers two growing and inter-connected social phenomena: the participation of urban women in assertive community organizations and the changing sex role behavior and attitudes among married couples in different social classes. Specifically, we hypothesize that women who are actively participating in such organizations are undergoing change not only in their political attitudes but also in their "personal" roles of wife and woman. Indeed, our preliminary research suggests that such changes are pronounced. In order to test this hypothesis, we are interviewing a sample of white women, under age 60, who are or have been married, and who have varying levels of organizational activity. We are also interviewing a control group of comparable women, living in the same neighborhoods, who are not active. In half the cases, the husbands of the women will be interviewed as well. The total sample of 1,200 will be drawn from neighborhoods in Chicago. The major dependent variables which we expect will vary with wife's organizational activity are: 1) general self image; 2) family division of labor; 3) attitudes toward the government and feelings of political efficacy; and 4) political participation beyond that carried out by the organization itself. Substantively, the demographic, attitudinal, and reported behavioral data we obtain will enable us to: 1) describe a large sample of urban married couples with special attention to these private and public attitudes and activities; 2) assess the impact of participation in assertive community organizations among women as that impact varies with level of involvement and length of membership; 3) examine the effects of participation in assertive community organizations as those effects are differentiated by social class, husbands' attitudes, ethnicity, and variations in organizational structures ideologies.